Jun 22, 2017

Blog Tour -- Sweet Scandal by Scarlett Scott

He’s not ready to give up on the plucky Lady Helen, especially when he discovers that she has secrets of her own…

SWEET SCANDAL

Heart's Temptation #4

Scarlett Scott

Released May 9, 2017

Not the
average lady

Lady Helen
Harrington is a spinster by choice. She hasn’t any desire to entangle herself
in romantic nonsense. Instead, she prefers to spend her time championing the
causes nearest to her heart through writing articles for the London Beacon.
When a ruthless American tycoon suddenly buys the struggling paper with plans
to turn it into a business journal, Lady Helen isn’t about to stand idly by or
put down her pen. Even if the ruthless tycoon in question happens to be the
most maddeningly handsome man she’s ever met in her life.

Not the
average man

Levi Storm
built his empire the hard way, spending years working his way out of the slums where
he grew up. He won’t allow a spoiled aristocrat like Lady Helen to interfere
with his plans to further his brand with the newspaper he’s just acquired. It
doesn’t matter how lovely she is or how persuasive her arguments or how
perfectly she fits in his arms.

One
sweet scandal

When
scandal looms and Helen discovers a shocking secret about Levi, she does what
she must to protect herself. But Levi isn’t the sort of man who admits defeat,
and he’s not ready to give up on the plucky Lady Helen, especially when he
discovers that she has secrets of her own…

Everything
sounded as if it were very far away, carried to her on a lush summer breeze.

Maybe she should not have consumed quite so much champagne. She’d lost count of
how many flutes she’d drained over the course of the ball. Good heavens, had it
been more than five? A fresh wave of dizziness assailed her and she stumbled
against his powerful, lean frame. He smelled divine, she thought fuzzily.

“Come,” he
ordered, ushering her hastily away.

She collected
her thoughts enough to protest. “Where are you taking me?”

He couldn’t
simply escort her out of the ballroom and into a private room. Propriety
certainly didn’t allow such a thing. She
ought not to allow such a thing. Would not if it weren’t for the spinning of
her head. As it stood, she was ineffectual as a fly at the moment.

“Hush.” He
steered her around a tittering countess and a footman bearing a tray of
champagne flutes.

“But—”

“My lady,
hush.”

“Someone will
see.”

“No one will
notice. Everyone here is either far too inebriated or preoccupied.”

Casting a
quick look about, he led her from the ballroom, down the hall, and into another
chamber. As the door closed at their backs, stifling the cacophony of sound
from the ballroom beyond, Helen realized they were in Jesse’s study. Alone.
Still dizzied, she clutched Mr. Storm’s arm. “We are in our host’s private
study. We cannot be here together.”

“Jesse won’t
mind,” he assured her, guiding her to an overstuffed chair and easing her into
it. He sank to his knees before her, his expression for once unguarded. “Are
you unwell, my lady?”

He was
concerned. A strange, new warmth stole over her. The world came back into crisp
focus but her heart hammered furiously against her breast. She still felt
off-kilter, almost as though she were out of her own skin, almost as if she
were giddy.

Oh dear. He
was before her like a knight of old, so striking and elegant, so unlike the
arrogant stranger who had unceremoniously removed her from his offices the day
they’d met. This Mr. Storm was different. Or maybe she was different. Or the
night was different. Or she was hopelessly, thoroughly in her cups. She didn’t
know which.

“I am fine,”
she forced herself to say. “I daresay I sampled too much of the champagne this
evening and that is all.”

“You don’t
seem fine, my lady.” He frowned. His hands bracketed her skirts, near enough to
her that he almost touched her, and the thought of those big hands of his on
her made her quite weak. “Can I fetch you something? Some water, perhaps? Some
ice?”

She licked
lips that had suddenly gone dry. “There is nothing I need other than for you to
return me to the ball. This is quite scandalous, sir. If someone should come
upon us, it would cause us no end of trouble.”

“No one will
come upon us. I’ve locked the door.”

His casual
pronouncement did wicked things to her body that she was sure had everything to
do with the blasted champagne. The door was locked. No one could disturb them
or happen upon them. They were free to do what they chose.

Yes, she was
in her cups alright, she had to be. There was no other reason for her to lean
forward, set her palms upon Mr. Storm’s shoulders, and press her mouth to his.
No other reason save for the fact that she had been thinking about him all day,
about how he had touched and kissed her, how he had made her feel, how he had
wanted her in his bed. She kissed him just for the feeling of his mouth upon
hers once more, because she couldn’t help herself, because she couldn’t not.

Award-winning
author Scarlett Scott writes contemporary and historical
romance with heat, heart, and happily ever afters. Since publishing her first
book in 2010, she has become a wife, mother to adorable identical twins and one
TV-loving dog, and a killer karaoke singer. Well, maybe not the last part, but
that’s what she’d like to think.

A
self-professed literary junkie and nerd, she loves reading anything but
especially romance novels, poetry, and Middle English verse. When she’s not
reading, writing, wrangling toddlers, or camping, you can catch up with her on
her website. Hearing from readers
never fails to make her day.